Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-17
Nebraska Letter.
BIG STRINGS, Neb., Feb. 1, 1887.

BIC STRINGS, Neb., Feb. 4, 1887.
EDITOR HERALD:-Your most excel
lent paper reaches me regularly, and
coming as it does. from my old horte.
and filed with tidings from the friends
OF my childhood and early life, is at all
times interesting to me. While feel
fully welded to my new home in the
West and expect to remain here per-
manently, yet the associations of days
gone by in old Wisconsin win ever be
held in grateful remembrance by me.
Ever since the Mayflower landed at
Plymouth Rock the tide of emigration
has been pressing westward, and it is
thus that continent of immense area
and unlimited agricultural, mineral.
and natural resources has been devel-
oped and the desert has indeed been
made to blossom like the rose. This
part of the great west was only few
years ago thought to be barren plain,
but the energy and enterprise of the
true American people are fast convert
ing it into homes of comfort and con-
tentment. A few years ago only the
buffalo roamed at will and unmolested.
The buffalo was crowded out to make
room for the cowboy. 1t was found
that these boundless plains furnished
pasturage for vast herds of cattle all the
year round, and it was then supposed
that soil that would produce food for
cattle and horses would certainly be
adapted for the habitation of man, and
then the edict went forth that the cow
COW must 60. And it was thus that the
homesteader pressed forward with the
pillow and these vast plains are now
dotted over with the sod shanties of the
settler, and school houses and churches
are being erected, where but few years
ago the bandit and freebooter roamed
at will and only the Indian war-whoop
was heard in the land.
was made in the spring of 1884, and
the experiment Of cultivating the soil
being entirely satisfactory and the agri-
cultural products being much better
than was expected, the emigration in
1885 and 1886 has been so great, that
all of vacant or free lands are now occu-
pied by settler for distance of forty
miles, either north or south of the
Springs. There are plenty of railroad
lands yet in the market, but prices are
advancing fast and have about doubled
within three years, and are now worth
from six to eight dollars per acre, and
some choice lands are still higher. The
soil is from two to six feet deep and
very productive. Corn, wheat. and
oats do as we'll here as ir Wisconsin.
As vegetable country presume there
is no better to be found on the CONT
nent. One of our settlers living eight
miles from the Springs raised this year
from less than one-fourth of an acre,
l25 bushels of potatoes. Sod corn has
produced this season, in some instances,
forty bushels per acre. Wheat has
averaged about twenty bushels per acre,
which is ahead of the average in the
East, even in favored seasons. The
climate is not so cold as in Wisconsin.
the thermometer indicating about 150
below zero as the lowest this season.
The altitude is about $4,000 feet
higher than in Chicago, giving US
light, pure atmosphere, which at all
times imparts health and vigor to those
who breathe it. If development con-
tinues for FIVE years as it has for the
past two years, we will have here all the
elegance, comfort and convenience en-
ioyed by the most favored localities of
the East.
The public domain is fast passing into
the hands of actual settlers and | will
close this already long letter by saying
to those who want cheap homes, that
the sooner they take advantage of the
opportunities which is offered them in
the great West, the better.
Truly Yours,
w. S. PLUMMER.